A statement held in front of the prison as part of Human Rights Week emphasized that reckoning with the past is indispensable for peace and democracy.
The statement was attended by the Human Rights Association (IHD), the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), the Diyarbakır (Amed) Bar Association, the Rosa Women’s Association, and the Diyarbakır Medical Chamber. Ahmet Güler, a representative of the ÖHD Diyarbakır Branch, said that Diyarbakır Military Prison No. 5 stands as a symbol of the institutionalized regime of torture that took shape during the September 12 period.
Güler said: “Despite the many years that have passed, a genuine confrontation with this mentality has never taken place; crimes of torture have gone unpunished, perpetrators have been protected, and the truth has not been brought to light. This practice of impunity has not led to the end of torture, but rather to its continuation through changing forms.”
The statement also noted that high-security prisons and S, Y, and R-type prisons have been turned into what it described as “modern torture centers,” stressing that the prison regime must be addressed for the peace and democratic society process to move forward.
It underlined that the isolation and lack of communication imposed on Abdullah Öcalan constitute a grave violation of rights, emphasizing that the “right to hope” is a guarantee of a peaceful solution.
Şerefhan Aydın, Co-Spokesperson of the Diyarbakır Prison Museum Coordination, said that there were attempts to alter the prison’s historical truth and to “romanticize” its past.
Aydın said that civil society organizations are being denied access to the prison, while social media content creators are able to film there without restriction, calling for the preservation of the site’s true memory.
Aydın said: “We do not accept the alteration of the truth of that place, and we call on all our institutions to raise their voices against this.”
The joint statement reiterated demands for the recognition of the right to hope, the lifting of isolation practices, an end to torture and ill-treatment, the termination of policies of impunity, and the transformation of Diyarbakır Military Prison No. 5 into a human rights museum.